ELYXIR staat aan de vooravond van haar debuut single. Een spannende dag als je het mij vraagt, maar ik kan haar geruststellen. Het nummer Mother Mania is geweldig en zal vele mensen bekoren over de hele wereld. Neem dat maar van mij aan. Dames en heren, ik presenteer u vanuit het verre Australië deze powervrouw met als artiestennaam ELYXIR!
ELYXIR is on the eve of her debut single. An exciting day if you ask me, but I can reassure her. The song Mother Mania is great and will charm many people all over the world. Take that from me. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you from faraway Australia this power woman with the stage name ELYXIR!
ELYXIR, can you please introduce yourself?
Hey there! I'm ELYXIR, and I am a fresh new Retrowave artist from Melbourne Australia on the scene. So far, I've experienced nothing but love from the synthwave and retrowave communities, it's been absolutely magical connecting with passionate music lovers like yourself!
On July 28th you will release your debut original single called Mother Mania (produced by Neilio from the UK). I cannot say enough how much I love this powerful track. What was the idea behind this song?
Neilio actually connected with me through a mutual producer a number of months ago, asking if I would be interested in collaborating on a track that he thought my voice would sit well on. I asked him to send it over and see if I vibed with it, and I instantly connected with the track (even in its bare bones structure of the time) from the first listen. For me, I spent many days listening to the track and playing around with the melody, particularly in my car which is where a lot of my melodic magic happens. I often just put the recorder on and play the song over and over and sing various melodies or lyrics, and then something will just click for me and I'll scream into my recorder "that that's the idea, that the direction" and then away I go! For this one, I had all the melody first, it came very strongly to me. I really wanted to make sure I had the lyrics right for the main chorus hook, so I played around with a lot of ideas. When I landed on "mo-mother, mo-mother mania" I knew I had it, and so I sat and pondered about why that popped into my brain. The more I dug, the more I realised that I really felt frustrated that in today's society so many of the so-called "institutions" (cough social media cough) and people around us who put out a perception that they love, care and support us, are often the ones to fail us and hurt us most. I loved how the term "mother mania" represented a bit of a contradiction that aligned with this concept- the nurturing, caring, loving "mother" and the chaotic, destructive "mania". Once I had cemented this idea in my brain, the rest of the lyrics flew out of me in about 15 minutes! I sent it over to Neilio to check that he vibed with it, and he was so happy with every part of it, which was such a relief for me because I was really cemented on the concept and the topline. The rest is history!
How was it to work with Neilio on Mother Mania?
It's been an absolute joy working with Neilio. He's an immensely gifted guitarist and composer. He takes things in different directions than I normally would, which makes us a really good team. For example, how the key changes at the end of the song then reverts back into the original key without feeling like a second key change is just genius to me, and I would never have come up with that. He has great communication skills, and we've become really good friends over the course of the collaboration. There will be a lot more in store for the 2 of us- we are already working on new music together, and I don't see that changing any time soon.
Red Manor Records will release your new track. Can we expect a physical release?
I can't spare too many details, but what I can tell you is that the track has been picked up for one of their compilation releases, so fans will have to stay tuned until I can officially announce all the details of when are where!
Can you share some of your plans for this year with us?
I'm very busy writing and collaborating with a vast range of producers in the synthwave/retrowave scene, so that will most likely mean a new release every 6-8 weeks for me well into the new year, which I'm sure will make my fans very happy! I'm also in the process of building the world for my debut album- I have a dream of releasing a 9 track album for physical release on Vinyl, CD and Cassettes. How I am going to go about doing that, I'm not 100% sure yet, but I am doing a lot of world building and inspiration, pulling song ideas and concepts together. I'll also spend the rest of the year building my presence within social media and the synthwave community through lots of conversations, supporting other artist releases, and maybe will do a live show in Melbourne at some point as well!
When was your first encounter with synthwave music?
I've been a massive fan of synthwave from the ´80s since I was a child. ´80s music is just so amazing in its construction, and I also find a lot of ´80s synthwave music to be bombastic and flamboyant in style, and that is so reflective of who I am as a person. So when I discovered a number of years ago that there was a genre of modern music that emulated and took inspiration from ´80s music, I was overjoyed and really excited. I've been so busy over the last 5 years toplining for various music industries all over the world, that it didn't leave much room for me to just enjoy new music as a listener rather than a creator, as I was always songwriting and recording like mad. Now that I've found more balance in my life over this past year, it's given me more time to really enjoy music as a listener, and I've found myself gravitating back to the ´80s and to the modern synthwave scene.
Who are your influences?
I have plenty of different influences for different reasons. I'm influenced by (and a huge admirer of) the current veteran crop of synthwave and retrowave female artists, such as Roxi Drive, Jessie Frye, PRIZM, Primo, Dana Jean Phoenix, Megan McDuffee, etc. These girls are doing amazing stuff, I wish it got more recognition in the scene as it is a really heavily male dominated music culture, but I feel like the waves are growing for the ladies. In terms of my music itself, and the way I write, I'm definitely influenced by some ´80s classic songwriters, such as Elton John, Billie Joel, Bryan Adams, Bonnie Tyler, Belinda Carlisle, Stevie Nicks, The Eurythmics, etc. Lady Gaga oddly is also a huge influence of mine, mainly for how dramatic and creative she gets with her melodies and lyrics! So it's a wide and varied list!
In my interviews I always ask the artist/producer if they can describe the synthwave scene in their country or city. So for you ;-), what are your thoughts on the synthwave scene in Australia?
I actually don't know a whole lot about the scene in Australia to be perfectly honest. The Australian music scene and industry is a really strange culture. I've been working behind the scenes for so long in the music industry overseas, that I've not really done a whole lot in Australia. It's one of those things where it feels like it's hardest to break out in your own country so you go where the opportunities lie, and for me that's been overseas! What I do know is that there is a handful of great synthwave groups and acts spread out across Australia that I've started connecting with, and some really cool live show tours that come through yearly, also there seems to be a lot of synthwave fans in Australia who love to listen to synthwave, and a huge vinyl community! I'm hoping that over time I can really source and connect with the community here, it will just take a bit of time to really find them! If you're reading this and you're from Australia, please connect with me and come and say hi!
What is your favorite movie of the ´80s and why?
Hands down, Back To The Future. No question. That movie is one of my favourite movies, period. It is incredible, the soundtrack is insanely good. It's comedic, clever, emotional, the whole works. Absolutely love it, and always will!
And finally any last words to the synthwave community?
I just want to say that I am so excited to get to know you all, and feel so welcomed into the community. It's been such a joy so far, talking to people, collaborating with other artists, connecting over all sorts of things, from synthwave music, to pizza, to sharing pics of our pets. It really brings warmth and goodness into my soul, and I hope to continue to grow with the community, and I hope that they enjoy my music and find meaning and purpose within it- whether it's having a boogie, or connecting emotionally to a lyric. This is just the very beginning for me, and I'm so excited to be here.
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